I was outside, watering, when I noticed a turtle amongst the foliage. I saw what I thought was yellow, and hoped it would be Roxy, but when the turtle moved away from the sound of my voice, I guessed it probably wasn’t. Once he came out into the open, I saw that he was an Eastern, not Ornate, and a dude. I’m still hoping for Roxy–I really want her to be still alive and still in the area–but I’ll take the more common Eastern. A box turtle is a good thing, regardless of species.

When I pruned the Lonicera flava out front, I decided to try rooting the end cuttings, since I’d heard those can be rooted in plain water. So far, so good, but a few days ago, I’d noticed that there were a few small holes in the leaves. I thought I’d probably just not noticed them when I took the cuttings, but this morning, when I checked to see whether the cuttings needed water, I saw there was over half of a leaf missing. Now that I would certainly have noticed before, so I flipped the leaf over to find the culprit. I don’t know whether he’s diffinis or thysbe, but he’s certainly Hemaris! He’s going to be relocated to the plant out front. I’d put him on the sempervirens because I have so much more of it, but his mama put him on the flava, so I’m not going to argue with her choice. It’s vigorous enough to handle the munching of one little ‘pillar.